Kids at the Book Festival 2013 in Hanoi. Mr. Bui Tuan Nghia, Deputy Director of the Kim Dong Publishing House, quoted statistics from the Publication Department as saying that the whole publishing industry in 2012 published 301 million copies of books, including textbooks.

The average number of books per person was 3.4 books per year. Without 226 million textbooks, the total books published was only 75 million copies. The average number of books per person fell to only 0.9 books per person.

According to the General Statistics Office, in 2011, Vietnam had 14,782,000 students of all levels and the population was 87.84 million. The terrible difference between the percentage of textbooks and reading books shows that the adult read too little, and the burden of book is placed on children is enormous. The sociologists and anthropologists need to work up with the numbers.

We set out doubt that whether this is a reversal of development? According to the ideal rule of development, as the human is more mature, the ability to consume material/ culture/knowledge should be increased gradually and reach the peak at the age of 30-40. In related news, on the morning of April 23, the 1-million-book project for 2,000 schools in the rural and mountainous areas by the Youth Union and the Kim Dong Publishing House.

Along with the project to bring books to the countryside, recently more organizations are interested in donating books to needy children and readers in the remote areas. Earlier, an official from the Ministry of Culture – Sports – Tourism said that compared to other countries in Southeast Asia, the proportion of people reading books in Vietnam is quite low. On average, Vietnamese read 0.8 books per year (less than one book).

The rate at public libraries is 0.38 books per person. Mr. Nguyen Quang Thach, who initiated the project to bring books to the countryside, said that he conducted a survey in 2011. All 253 respondents who were farmers said they did not read book. Rural children read 0.2-0.8 book/year compared to 5 books per year for urban kids.

Vietnamnet